BAMBOO RAFTS 178 
sufficiently small to pay them in; consequently, a con- 
siderable number of cash have to be carried. The 
quantity is always kept as small as possible because 
the weight is a serious matter. 
Ya-chow is about 2,600 feet above the sea-level, and 
is a well-built city. It is a busy place, all the tea for 
export to Tibet being made up here into slabs. This 
tea is of a coarse description, and in the slabs are, besides 
the leaves, twigs and chopped bits of stem. The leaves 
are not picked, but branches are chopped from the 
plant and dried in the sun. 
The Chinese look down upon the Tibetans, and say 
that this description of tea is good enough for them, 
but even the poorest Chinese will not use it. Tobacco 
is also exported to Ta-tsien-lu. 
Very few junks are seen on the Ya River, the navi- 
gation being too dangerous, but goods are sent down in 
long narrow bamboo rafts. Many of these come up 
loaded with samshew (native spirit) in large earthenware 
jars, holding perhaps fifty gallons each and cased in 
bamboo. ‘These are stowed in a single line right along 
the centre of the raft, which may carry as many as 
thirty, and are brought from Sui-fu. 
Passing through Ya-chow, the village of Tzu-shih-li 
was reached in the evening. Here the valley of the Ya, 
through which we had travelled for the last three days, 
